


Heart & Mind

by Skullszeyes



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood, Confusion, Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Friendship, Gummi Ships (Kingdom Hearts), Hugs, Keyblade Wielders (Kingdom Hearts), Memory Loss, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, Minor Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Not Beta Read, POV Male Character, Pain, Realization, Running Away, Sora-centric (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas Being an Asshole (Kingdom Hearts), Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22486888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Sora lived a normal life with a boring job where he goes home and dreams of creatures, and his friend, Riku.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	Heart & Mind

**Author's Note:**

> This popped up inside my head, and tbh, I don't think I even wrote the dialogue that I thought up. LOL. Anyway, it wasn't meant to be this long, but oh wells, I guess. :) I probably won't be able to write something this long in awhile, so I guess, enjoy it! :D
> 
> I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.

Whenever he looked up at the sky, he felt something strong resonating from the stars and the darkness between. He yearned to return to those same stars, he didn’t know why that was.

Maybe everyone felt that way at some point.

Sora let out a deep sigh. He looked away from the darkening sky and road his bike along the dirt road that led toward the main road. He’ll have to head home and start on dinner.

He breathed in the summer chill, a smile on his lips. The day wasn’t so bad. He worked in a post office, and usually he dozed off in the back of the office until his co-worker nudged him awake before their boss could find him. He tried his hardest not to get caught in those regards. After he left, he took the long way home so he could stare along the open fields and the sky that stretched in all directions as the sun began to set in the horizon. It was beautiful. 

When he reached his apartment, he placed his bike inside a shed in the back of the building, and locked it with a padlock. He didn’t want his bike getting stolen like the last two times. He hated walking to work.

Sora climbed the stairs to the third floor and unlocked his back door. He pushed it open and stepped inside. There was a quietness that didn’t feel as comforting, but it didn’t matter, he was finally home. He shut the door and locked it.

“What am I going to eat?” Sora asked himself once he slipped his shoes off and made his way over to the fridge. He looked inside and frowned at the lack of food.

Once his co-worker made fun of him because he didn’t know how to make a decent meal for himself. All he did ask was for the instructions and list of ingredients. He had went on about Sora’s lack of parents. 

_“You have anything better to do than to harass an orphan?” Sora asked him while he organized a group of papers to distract himself from the distressing comments._

It was the last time he had brought it up, and Sora rarely thought about it, but when he watched TV, he found a lot of people had parents that were always with them. Happy. Healthy. Together. Sora could hardly recall how his parents looked. He really didn’t know anything about them, or what had happened to make Sora into an orphan in the first place.

In the past, he did try to get a birth certificate so he could figure out what his parents names were. Except when he researched them, it was almost like they didn’t exist. Or they were trying their hardest to never meet their son.

Sora didn’t want to think negatively. Maybe his parents did die like what his co-worker had assumed, and because of the accident, Sora lost all his memories besides the ones that stayed since the beginning of the year.

Sora took out his small carton of strawberries. They were starting to get too soft. He cut them up, washed them, and placed them inside a bowl. After that, he took out a Pepsi can, and plopped down on the couch in his small living room. Most of the furniture he got was from dumpster diving. Well, of course some of it was sitting _beside_ the dumpster, so he actually didn’t have to go inside it. It was holding up good, so it didn’t matter.

Sora turned the TV on and began watching a movie while he slowly consumed his strawberries. He had fallen asleep on the couch, and inside his dreams he spotted someone familiar within the strange environment.

Sora was spinning around on an empty street that didn’t look like his city, while holding onto a strange dream creature that almost resembled a dog. He laughed by himself until he felt that presence, and he slowed down, and peered down the street toward the figure who was walking toward him. 

He waved, placing the dog creature down onto the ground. “Hey, Riku.”

Riku was a lot taller with silver hair and light blue eyes. He was fair in complexion, and wore dark clothing. He always showed up in one of Sora’s dreams. At the beginning of the year, Riku hadn’t appeared until six months later, and it almost seemed like he was shocked that Sora was in front of him. He never told him why that was, but Sora didn’t care, he was having fun wandering around in his dreams than to inquire of Riku’s strange expressions.

“How was your day?” Riku asked, crossing his arms.

“It was fine,” Sora said, wrinkling his nose. “I almost got caught sleeping in the back...I don’t need anymore strikes before I lose my job.”

Riku nodded slowly, then he dropped his hands to his sides, and he let out a deep sigh. There was something seriously bothering him, and Sora wasn’t sure what it was. He was the only other dream that lingered, unlike the others.

“What’s wrong?” Sora asked, tilting his head up to look into Riku’s eyes.

“I thought it would be better if you were safe…” Riku shook his head, the thoughts flitted around in his eyes as he avoided looking at Sora.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you meet anyone today?” Riku asked softly.

“No.”

“Where are you? In the waking world?” 

Why was he asking that? Riku had never asked that, and it sent a shiver up Sora’s spine. “I’m on the couch, in my apartment.” He placed a hand on his stomach. “I have to buy food tomorrow.” He was running out of money, and that was becoming a problem.

“Do you remember anything from before…” Riku seemed conflicted, as if the question was too cryptic or confusing, which it was, and it made Sora frown at what he meant. He seemed to sort out his thoughts while Sora hugged the dog creature again. “Sora, if I come for you, will you come with me?”

Sora turned around at the question. It was too strange, but it was all dream, maybe it was meant to be like that. “What do you mean? I’m here, aren’t I? I’m right in front of you, Riku.”

“No, Sora, that isn’t what I meant,” Riku said, letting out a breath. There was something bothering him, he seemed a little nervous.

“What do you mean then?” Sora asked, walking back over to Riku. “You’re a dream, we can go anywhere we want.”

Riku met Sora’s eyes and frowned. “No, Sora, you’re getting dreams and reality confused again. Everything else is part of your dream, but I’m not. I thought you’d be safer where you are now, except you're not anymore. They’re coming for you, and you don’t even know how to summon your…”

The dream shifted, and Riku disappeared from Sora’s dream. He blinked, confused by what had happened until a loud sound pushed Sora out of the dream, and he sat up abruptly. He looked around, the TV was still on, his bowl was empty, including his can of Pepsi. The noise, however, was coming from his front door.

“Hey, open up!”

Sora rubbed his eyes and stood up from the couch, and before he could walk over to the front door. There was a trembling under his feet that was coming from the door itself until he noticed the darkness around that area was becoming thicker until a form appeared out from it.

Sora blinked back sleep while taking a step back, wondering if he was still dreaming as he stared at the person beginning to materialize. His eyes widened, heart racing, as the person wore a dark mask that reflected Sora’s face off of it, their body was covered in some kind of body suit, but what was more frightening was the way he regarded him as a cold chill filled the room. 

“Well, well, this is where you’ve been.” He looked around and scoffed.

“Who are you?” Sora asked, taking another cautious step back. 

“Out of anyone, I thought you’d be the last person to forget who I am.” He didn’t sound offended, nor did he care, but as he walked along the floor, and the wood beneath groaned as the darkness seemed to follow him. “It took us a long time to find you. I was wondering if they were hiding you, but I can see that you’ve solved that yourself, all on your own.”

He was mocking him, but why? Sora could hardly recall who this person was, even how he tried to search his thoughts for the right answer. Who was he? Why was he inside his apartment? And if he got too close to him, what was he going to do to him?

Sora didn’t want to know, and as he got closer, he stepped away until he was between the kitchen and the living room. He gave a nervous laugh at the figure, and said, “I’m just going to—”

Something appeared in his hand, and all of Sora’s resolve had shriveled up inside of him. He didn’t know what it was, or how he did it, but the weapon emitted a strong pressure. He did not want to know what it was, and Sora, without hesitation, turned around and sprinted for the door, he grasped his shoes, his fingers twisting the lock until the door flew open.

“Where are you going?” the strange man asked, and as Sora jumped down the first staircase, a loud ear piercing sound reverberating above him where wood and glass went flying into the air. Some had hit him and he had little time to question what the hell happened as he sprinted down the remaining steps.

Unfortunately he didn’t have his key to the shed, and was forced to run toward the alley. He struggled with putting his shoes on and when he glanced back once he slipped them on, the figure was walking towards him, the darkness in the alley grew dense.

“You can’t run from me,” he yelled, then he pulled his arm up, and he swung the weapon which followed by a loud sound, wind picking up, and Sora shrieked as he was shoved to the side, landing hard on the grass.

“What do you want from me?” Sora asked as he pushed himself to his feet, he had a second to glance at the asphalt where he spotted the deep groove in the road. 

It...destroyed the road in an effortless cut, as if it were nothing.

Sora trembled and sprinted instead of staying to hear the answer. He was sure he wasn’t going to give it to him. He almost skidded as he left the alley and picked up speed as he ran under the streetlamps that lit the empty road. He had a moment to glance back and didn’t spot the strange figure. He slowed down and took a breather while questions piled up inside of his head. 

_What was going on? Who was that person? What was that thing they were holding?_

“It looked like...a key,” Sora said to himself. There were strange designs that made it distinct, and the power that came from it was an impossibility. He had never come across someone who could do that.

Riku. He had been saying something in his dream, that someone was coming for him. That can’t be right? Riku is a dream, that was nothing but a dream. Then, this could be a dream too, right?

“Did you honestly think you could escape me?” the figure appeared out of nowhere along the road in front of him.

Sora backed up, “You’re not real, this isn’t real.”

“Oh, but this is, Sora, you might want to get out of that dreamer head of yours,” the figure walked right up to him, and in an instant hit Sora, “and face reality.”

Sora gasped as he hit the road, spikes of pain shot him along his side, while his fingers reached for the warmth slipping from his nose and found he was staring at his blood. He gritted his teeth to stop the scream that wanted to escape from his throat as he tried to push himself to his feet.

This can’t be real. It’s not real, but it is, isn’t it? This is real, and he was bleeding, and this person was going to kill him.

“What do you want from me?” Sora asked him.

“The thirteenth vessel,” he answered, kneeling down and his mask began to fade from his face, and the smirk that pulled on his lips was amused at Sora’s horrified reaction. “You’re the remaining one, and you’ve eluded us for over a year. We tried tracking you, but we always hit a dead end, at least until today.”

_His face._

_It looked like his._

_A lot like his._

_He was…_

“How did you find me?” Sora asked, unsure of why he was asking the question, but what he had said was curious enough for Sora to ask. A year. That’s how long he didn’t know who he was even how much he tried.

“Your dreams,” he said, leaning closer, “with the Keyblade Master was a good help with finding you. So many worlds, and this one was hidden away. Let’s just say it was curious why he had hid you here all this time if it wasn’t for what you did.”

_What? What he did? What did he do? Who hid him here?_

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sora said, trying to move away from the boy who looked a lot like him.

The boy narrowed his eyes, “You...don’t remember, do you?”

“I don’t know anything, I can’t remember anything from a year ago, I don’t know who you are, and what you’re talking about!” Sora said, trying to calm down, but it was all too much. He was trying to think, to remember, but nothing was returning to him.

The boy seemed perplexed before he let out a gratified laugh. “You...don’t remember,” he stood up from where he was knelt, “then this will make everything really, really easy.”

Sora noticed the subtle look on the boy’s face, as if he realized something was strange while Sora was getting to his feet, and sprinting down the road. He felt the pressure again, the same energy that emitted from the weapon the boy held. What was it? He can’t remember what it was, if only he could. This would make things a lot easier for him to understand if it wasn’t for the aspect that he didn’t know anything at all.

“You can’t escape, Sora!” Then the same pressure rose, and Sora pushed himself to his right the second the wind picked up, destroying the asphalt, the concrete, and the light post that began to fall, shattering the glass and covering one part of the street in darkness.

Sora almost stumbled to the ground at the harsh sound. The dreams, they were all real, well...most of them.

Riku. His only friend, which was kind of sad when he thought about it, was real and not an actual dream. He was real. Riku is real! The person who stayed with him inside his dream, who walked with him throughout the different places he could imagine, finding dream creatures and playing with them.

“He’s real,” Sora whispered, finding the thought both comforting and profoundly deceptive. He could’ve told him that he was real. He could’ve said something in all the months that he spent alone at his work. He told Riku how he felt about his job, his annoying co-worker, the lack of food inside of his fridge, the fear of not being able to pay his rent so he could keep his shitty apartment.

“Riku,” Sora gasped as another energy wave cut into the road, the rumble beneath his feet almost sent Sora flying to the ground. “Riku, Riku, Riku, you’re real, you idiot! Come and save me!” He yelled this to the sky, to the stars that had been blotted out from the city lights, but he yelled at them anyways because he needed Riku.

The boy got so close to the point that Sora wasn’t sure what would happen if his weapon hit him. It was frustrating as he dodged out of the way a few times, small waves of energy shot out, barely hitting Sora besides slicing a bit of his t-shirt, and knicking his shoulder. 

“I thought I was important!” Sora said, backing up.

“You are,” the boy said, tilting his head, “but I’m having fun with you, I rarely get to see you struggle without your weapon.”

_My weapon? I have one?_

Sora looked down at his hand and felt nothing as he moved away from the boy who slashed the air. How does it feel to summon the same weapon the boy was holding? Is there a way to feel it, or was it automatic? And if it was, why hadn’t it appeared in the past?

Sora didn’t know, nor how he was going to escape this boy who was getting real close at cutting him in half.

“You said...worlds, right?” Sora asked, panting low. “What does that mean?”

The boy scoffed, gripping his weapon. It did look like a sword, but it also looked like an overly large key of some kind. “You really don’t remember…I guess it doesn’t matter all that much.”

“Tell me!” Sora demanded, then the swipe of the boy’s weapon had it its mark, and Sora fell to his knee, gripping his arm where a deep cut split his skin open, blood already soaking his sleeve and down his bare arm.

“There are a lot more worlds than this one,” the boy said, walking towards him, “and if you remembered them, it would make sense to some capacity, but you don’t.”

If only he could remember, but he didn’t. It was gone from his mind even how much he searched. What was holding him back from remembering? What did he do to the point he had put himself in this state?

“Sora!” 

The only time when he felt less alone was when he slept, and when he was in the company of the dream creatures, and of course, Riku. There was a comfort in his presence, and he didn’t shame Sora for what he liked and disliked. He wanted a friend like Riku to exist, and he was always disappointed when he woke up.

“Sora!” 

He raised his eyes, and the boy scowled, turning his eyes away from Sora toward the street, and before Sora could look, the boy raised his weapon, and it clashed with another.

Sora gasped, his body jolting as he pushed himself back as the boy was attacked by another person. This one stood between them, his weapon had its own power, a strength that was light and endless.

“Get up, Sora!”

He blinked, staring at the person and recognizing them for who they are. “Riku…”

“Get up!” 

Sora scrambled to his feet, backing away and Riku raised his weapon, and the boy scowled before disappearing as Riku’s attacked shattered the asphalt in a deep groove, more powerful than the boy who was simply playing around with Sora. Riku’s attack was meant to damage the boy, it was meant to immobilize him, or in the least, kill him.

Riku backed away, his weapon disappeared from his hand in a flicker of light, and Sora wondered where it had gone until Riku grasped Sora’s wrist and pulled him down the street. They were running fast, a lot faster than what Sora was used too, and he groaned, letting out harsh breathes as he tried to ignore the pain in his arm.

They slowed down while Riku glanced around the street, his grip was tight on Sora’s wrist. He was alert, focused, and when he realized they were truly alone, he twisted around and let go of Sora’s arm. He was scanning Sora’s body until it came to Sora’s bleeding nose that had dried up, the cut on his shoulder, and the laceration in his arm.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve been close enough to get to you before they did,” Riku said, shaking his head as he fiddled with his pocket before he pulled out a small bottle with strange liquid sitting inside of it.

“Who was that?” Sora asked, finding his thoughts going blank as he tried to figure out what was happening.

“Vanitas.” Riku scowled, taking off the cap from the bottle. “Denizen of darkness...I can’t believe out of anyone they sent him.”

There were more, a lot more, where he had come from. 

“He said...I’m the thirteenth vessel…” Sora whispered while Riku seemed to want him to drink the contents in the bottle. “I don’t want that.”

“You have too, it’ll heal your wounds, at least the smaller ones, and it’ll even help the one in your—”

Sora backed away from Riku and he stared at him fully. This wasn’t a dream, was it? He was here, as he had seen him many times when he slept. He was the same. Silver hair that touched his shoulders, pale blue eyes that were always kind, and dark clothes with a white shirt beneath. He didn’t really change.

“This is real, you’re real…” Sora said, shaking his head, he felt warm in his short sleeve shirt, and shorts.

Riku reached out for Sora before he could fall and he lowered him down to the sidewalk. “I’m real, I would’ve told you eventually, but...I didn’t want you to worry, we had everything under control, and once we knew it was safe, I was going to come for you.”

“You were in my dream,” Sora muttered, his warmth and relief was making him shaky.

Riku placed his hand to Sora’s forehead, “I’m your Dream Eater, I can enter your dreams whenever I want, we’re kind of connected in that way.”

Connected. He was connected to Riku via his dreams...

“I have to be dreaming, none of this can be real, can it? He...Vanitas tried to kill me, he destroyed my apartment.” He frowned at the thought of the front door and his window being smashed into splintered wood and glass shards. 

“It doesn’t matter, Sora, you’re coming back with me. You’re no longer safe here,” Riku said, still holding the bottle.

Sora stared at it and decided to take hold of it. “Is it good?”

“It’ll heal you.”

That wasn’t the answer he hoped. Sora took a deep breath and drank the contents, and then he coughed. It was like medicine with a more fruity taste to it. “What is that?”

“Hi-Potion, it’ll help,” Riku said, placing the cap back on the jar and tucking it inside his pocket. “See, you’re already healing.”

Sora looked and found most of the marks were gone, including the pain in his shoulder, although the cut wasn’t able to fully heal, and Riku said he’ll have something for him in the ship once they get to it.

“Did you just say ship?” Sora asked as Riku helped him to his feet.

“Yeah, how did you think I got here?”

“Like...a space ship?”

“It’s called a Gummi Ship,” Riku said, leading Sora down the empty, quiet street. 

“A what?” Sora asked, skeptically. Riku chuckled, and Sora’s heart raced, feeling warm that Riku was real, he was real, and this wasn’t a dream. “I can’t believe you’re real!” Sora wrapped his arms around Riku and held him close, smiling to himself at how nice Riku felt.

“Hey, come on, Sora,” Riku said, taking his arms off of him, “we’ll have a lot more hugging once we get off this world...I don’t want Vanitas attacking us again.”

Sora laughed and almost seemed to be skipping as they walked down the street together. He was thrilled that his only friend was real. That this was real, and he really hoped that he didn’t wake up on his couch.

“How did you summon that...weapon of yours?”

Riku arched a brow, “You mean the Keyblade?” Then he extended his hand out and it appeared in a flash of light. It actually did look like a key. Silver with interesting edges, and it was huge. 

“Is it heavy?” 

“No. I guess it depends on who is using who’s Keyblade.”

“Do I have one?” Sora asked, hopeful.

Riku let his Keyblade fade. “Yeah, of course you do...I don’t think you can summon it right now, your heart might not remember it all that much.”

_My heart might not remember it? What did that mean?_

“Where is this...Gummi Ship?” 

“I left it in a park, hopefully no one sees it,” Riku said, chuckling nervously.

They walked two more blocks and Sora realized that Riku had run the distance to get to Sora. And when they turned the corner, Sora stared at a large object sitting in the middle of the park.

“Wait, that’s the Gummi Ship?” Sora asked, staring in awe at how massive it was, and strangely built. 

“Yeah, you used to pilot it,” Riku said, grinning at Sora’s disbelief. “Let’s go.”

They entered the park and walked toward the ship. Riku raised his hand and clicked something that made the back part of the ship open up.

Sora couldn’t believe it. He was actually walking towards a space ship, and that his dream friend is an actual person, and he was attacked by some weird boy who had his face, and they both wielded oversized keys.

“Why did you come for me?” Sora asked him, slowing his pace upon the grass that smelled strong from when it was cut earlier that day. 

Riku turned, arching his brow. “I had to make sure they didn’t get to you.”

“Why?” Sora couldn’t help the confliction he was feeling. “Why now? Why couldn’t you get me earlier? Why couldn’t you tell me anything?”

Riku stayed silent, and that wasn’t an answer.

“Aw, are you having a fight?” the boy, Vanitas, appeared to their far left, the shadows grew around his feet and Sora could swear they were rising into strange shapes that almost resembled the dream creatures.

Sora took a careful step back while Riku summoned his weapon. These were two conflicting forces that confused Sora to no end. He didn’t know the answers, he could hardly remember who he was or where he came from. Why didn’t Riku save him? Why was he the thirteenth vessel? What did that even mean?

Riku swung his blade at Vanitas, and he parried it with his own weapon. They attacked one another, while Sora was struggling with his thoughts as he knelt down, fingers curling into his brown hair. 

He squeezed his eyes closed, and whispered over and over again, “Please, remember, please, remember, please, remember, please, remember...what happened to me? What did I do?” He searched throughout the year as he recreated himself, when he got his job, when he met his annoying co-worker, and the moment when he woke up without the memories.

Sora shuddered, then he felt something strike him, but it wasn’t Vanitas or Riku. It was something else inside of him, and when he closed his eyes, the ground itself seem to swallow him whole, and he fell through the darkness, his body warm and cold at the same time until his feet planted on a strange circular structure in the center of nothing. It was bright and had an image of himself in the center. His eyes were closed as if he were sleeping. 

Sora smelled the distinct scent of the ocean. He didn’t know why, but he recognized the sound of the waves crashing into the shore, the feel of the sand under his feet as he ran along the beach, the sky in all its different forms where he sat upon a bent tree.

Home. That was home, a place he longed for in the sky, he reached his hand out to it, and hoped with all his heart that he could return to this place. He didn’t know what that yearning meant for him, but now he did, he recognized it as more memories formed from that want and need.

Riku, a friend who sat beside him on the sand, the one who stood as his rival, his best friend, his everything. And the girl with red hair who smiled brightly amongst the others who played with them on the island. The worlds that flashed before him rippled through his head until he recalled the day when he arrived on this new world.

“It’s okay,” Sora yelled as he stared up at the ship, at Riku, during the sunset as the stars began to peek amongst the darkness, the wind pushing his brown hair to the side. “It’s okay, I’m okay...just make sure they don’t find me!” He held a weapon and he ignored Riku’s pleas as he plunged the Keyblade into his chest, and instead of pulling his heart out, he locked his memories inside his heart, and with that, his mind had gone completely blank, the keyblade disappeared from his hand as he fell to his knees.

Riku was long gone when some people had found him.

Sora shuddered at the memory. He looked down at his hands, at what he had done even though the reason itself was still lost on him.

“Can I have it back?” he asked, extending his hand out, hoping with all his heart for that weapon that was forged within him. “Give it back to me! The Keyblade!” Then Sora was pushed out of the strange place where he spotted Riku, and the girl, Kairi’s faces beside his own, then he opened his eyes and he looked down at his hand, at the Keyblade, silver and gold.

“I summoned it,” Sora said, tightening his hand on the handle. “It’s mine.” He raised his eyes to Riku who shoved Vanitas back. His attacks were becoming more erratic as he fought Riku who looked like he was having a hard time pushing him away.

Riku.

Sora got to his feet and sprinted towards them, he pushed himself into the air, and slashed between them, before parrying Vanitas’s attack. He struggled with it since he didn’t remember how to wield the Keyblade, or how to properly stand against someone who looked ready to kill them.

“Sora,” Riku gasped, panting lowly from behind him, “you...you summoned it.”

He gritted his teeth and shoved Vanitas away, “Yeah, I...still don’t have my memories, but if we survive this, can you take me back to the...island?”

_Home. A place in the stars._

Surprise flickered on Riku’s face, but a grin replaced it as he said, “Of course, that will be our first stop.”

Sora glared at Vanitas who had covered his face with the helmet. He knew what he looked beneath it, and that will also be questioned later. He pointed the Keyblade at Vanitas. “Leave, you’re not going to win this battle.”

Vanitas chuckled, “I’m not here to win any battle, but to capture the thirteenth vessel, but I can see that it’ll have to wait for another time.” He backed away and melted into shadow until he was completely gone.

Riku seemed to be hitting the small creatures until they disappeared, then he let his Keyblade fade from his hand. 

Sora wasn’t sure of letting go of his Keyblade. He looked at it with interest. It was a normal key, just bigger, and held a lot more power. It thrummed in his hand, warm to the touch.

“This is mine?” he asked.

Riku nodded, smiling at him. “Yeah, it has always belonged to you.”

“Will it come back to me?” Sora asked, letting it fade away. It was automatic, a feeling inside of him as if it was tucked away, somewhere in reach. The thought itself was comforting.

“It will when you call for it.” Then Riku gestured for him to enter the Gummi Ship, but Sora was hesitant.

“You didn’t answer my questions,” Sora said, looking away from Riku and finding this situation somewhat awkward. They had saved one another and all Sora wanted was the holes in his head to be filled.

“You told me not to come for you,” Riku said, letting out a sigh. “I begged you not to do what you were going to do, but you were adamant that the idea would work. At least enough until we get things under control. We had to find the other Keyblade wielders, but the denizens of darkness were more focused on you, they knew where you’d be every time we went to another world. They hunted you like a pack of wild dogs.”

Sora shuddered at the thought, he couldn’t remember that, just the time in the field when he had forced the memories far in the back of his mind.

“Did it help?”

“Somewhat, we found the Keyblade wielders, at least some of them, and we protected the princess’s of heart who were being threatened.” Riku seemed a little distracted. “I kept tabs on you while you slept. You were...different. Carefree, less stressed, less determined to fight others. You were like how you were when you were younger, before we wielded the Keyblade.”

Sora didn’t really know what he meant. “You were going to come back for me, right?”

Riku nodded, “I was, eventually, when I knew you were no longer a target.” He let out a deep sigh. “They still want you as their thirteenth vessel...and you don’t have your memories back, which makes this a problem.”

Sora glanced at the Gummi Ship. Why did this have to be so surreal? “Am I still coming with you, or are you leaving me here?” 

“Vanitas knows you’re here, there isn’t any point in leaving you on this world,” Riku said, gesturing for Sora to follow him. He was patient as he waited for Sora to grow comfortable to take a step toward him, and then they were walking into the Gummi Ship. The first thing Riku did was dress Sora’s wound before he walked toward a large panel at the front of the ship.

Sora explored the small area before glancing over Riku’s shoulder, then out the window. The park was covered in darkness, while the streets where Vanitas had attacked him were covered in light besides one spot. In the last forty minutes, his entire life had changed, and he thought back over the year that he spent alone without his memory, he held nothing here that he could cherish. Maybe in someway, he knew that he had other places and other people whom he could cherish more than this lonely life.

Riku pressed a button and told him to be careful while the Gummi Ship began to rise.

Sora smiled, feeling relieved that he was leaving this world. “Are we going back to that island?” he asked as the clouds began to drift past them while the Gummi Ship flew into the air. He pressed his hands against the window and watched the cities become smaller and smaller.

“You mean the Destiny Islands?” Riku asked him.

Right, that’s what it was called. “Yeah...that place...is home, isn’t it?”

Riku glanced back at him and Sora met his eyes. Sora couldn’t deny there was a connection between them, something he didn’t remember. “It is, and it’ll always will be for us.” He turned back to the panel. “I’m sure your parents would also like to see you.”

Sora blinked at that. “I have parents?” 

Riku frowned, “Of course you do.”

Sora watched the world as they entered space and flew away from it. There was a small ache in his chest that faded out the overwhelming aspect that he wasn’t an orphan. “Will I ever get my memories back?”

“When you’re ready,” Riku answered, placing the Gummi Ship on autopilot. He stood up and placed his hands on Sora’s shoulders when he had turned around. “This was your choice, and when you are ready, you can unlock them with your Keyblade.”

Sora nodded, then he hugged Riku with the fear that this could be a dream, and Riku hugged him back. He had been lonely without Riku, and now that he was real, he knew everything would make sense while being with him.

“Thank you for coming back for me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of want to continue this, but I'll do that sometime later when I don't feel overwhelmed and depressed. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.


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